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British tourists warned to stay away from Kenyan resorts

A hand grenade lies on the ground after being hurled at a van carrying British tourists in a neighborhood of the area's main city Mombasa, Kenya last December. The hand grenade failed to explode after hitting a window of the vehicle.Photo: The Associated Press

Tourists should avoid Kenya’s main coastal city of Mombasa and popular beaches to its north due to the threat of terrorism, Britain’s Foreign Office warned in an update to its travel advice Wednesday.

Kenya receives more visitors from Britain than from any other country, and tour operators said they feared the new warning could cause a collapse of tourism around the country’s Indian Ocean beaches that would last at least the rest of this year.

No fresh specific threat prompted the update, sources said. Instead it was amended following a series of small-scale bombings and incidents linked to terrorism in the past two months.

Britons already in the area should leave immediately unless they have “an essential reason to remain”, the update continued. Among the major Western diplomatic missions in Kenya, only Britain and Australia have such extensive warnings in place for the country’s coast.

Most European countries advise against travel to Mombasa city, but say beaches are safe, albeit with vigilance.

America says its citizens should avoid public places where foreigners gather, and reported on Tuesday that it had increased security around its embassy.

Almost 200,000 British citizens visit Kenya each year, and the advisory was met with immediate dismay from hoteliers and travel agents.

“We appreciate that the UK government has a responsibility for its citizens’ safety, but really this advisory is alarmist, untimely, and has the potential to shut down all tourism for this destination,” said Sam Ikwaye, the executive officer of the Kenya Association of Hotel Keepers and Caterers in Mombasa.

“When anyone, not just British people, hears the British government saying, ‘Don’t come to Mombasa’, then it has an impact on everyone’s perception of the safety here, when really it is still very safe in our estimation.

“You cannot imagine the impact. Tourism has a multiplier effect, so many people depend on it for their livelihoods. This advisory can put them all out of work.”

More than 600,000 Kenyans are directly employed in tourism, and millions more survive thanks to it. The industry accounts for 12.5 per cent of the country’s GDP.

The areas affected by the new warning are Mombasa city and a three-mile-wide coastal strip that runs from the resort of Tiwi to the south up to Mtwapa Creek to the north. Within that zone are large numbers of resorts popular with British tourists, especially package holidaymakers on charter trips, including beaches at Bamburi, Nyali and Shanzu.

Diani, the main beach resort south of Mombasa, and the city’s airport are deemed to be safe, but visitors transferring by road from flights to hotels in Diani face an hours-long detour in order to avoid the new banned areas.

“That’s this year’s season destroyed, it’s devastating news,” said Arty Round-Turner, the manager of Sand Island Beach Cottages on Tiwi beach, which falls inside the new threat zone.

Foreign Office travel advisories have no legal power to prohibit Britons from undertaking trips, but they often invalidate visitors’ travel insurance.